Former Belarusian official on scandalous videos: system collapses from within

The By_Pol group, which is made up of outgoing Belarusian law enforcement officers, is led by Andrei Astapovich, a 27-year-old Belarusian militia investigator. The young man is now publicly urging the people of the country to “defend the dictator.”

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty writes about it.

Astapovic is waiting for the Polish authorities to grant his asylum application. The main objective of the former officials is to hold former colleagues accountable for their actions to suppress peaceful protests after the presidential elections.

“We will collect all the necessary data and document all the crimes of the regime, from the falsification of the election results to the aggression of the militias and even the massacres,” Astapovich told reporters by telephone from Warsaw on November 30.

Belarus’ authoritarian leader Lukashenko said he had defeated his opponents in the devastating August 9 elections. His opponents have accused the president of falsifying the results of a long-running election campaign. Dissatisfied with the election results, the country’s population has also rebelled, peaceful protests on the streets of Belarusian cities have stopped for the fourth month in a row, and the opposition is actively gathering evidence of crimes and brutal treatment of protesters for part of the security agents.

Most of the Belarusian ruling apparatus continues to declare allegiance to Mr. Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994 and accused by critics and Western states of persecuting dissidents and electoral irregularities. A new initiative group founded by A. Astapovičius, called By_Pol, working from abroad, is doing its best to expose more such crimes.

The very idea of ​​uniting all the officials who voluntarily left the Belarusian law enforcement agencies came up in October during a meeting in Poland attended by two former state investigators, police officers, prosecutors and the country’s exiled opposition leader, Sviatlana Cichanouskaya.

Proponents of the policy say that if the votes in the presidential elections had been counted fairly, a certain victory would have been celebrated.

Astapovich himself, who attended the meeting, says that Belarusian law enforcement officials are divided into two camps: those who pursue protesters, waving rubber batons and threatening firearms, and so-called intellectuals: senior civil servants and university graduates. questioning the legitimacy of the Lukashenko regime.

The media focus on the representatives of the first camp, says A. Astapovičius, because they are the ones who suppress the protests in the most brutal way in the streets.

“They create an impression of unity, all as a fist. The only truth is that those who really make decisions are increasingly inclined towards people. The system is rotting and collapsing from the inside, ”says A. Astapovičius.

It is difficult to confirm the statements of A. Astapovičius, as well as it is difficult to estimate how many officials who sincerely support Lukashenko remain in the system. In a written response to the RFE / RL, Mr. Cichanouskaya confirmed in October that such a meeting had been held with former officials and stated that the Belarusian opposition urgently needed his knowledge and experience to better understand how to attract to more officials and better understand how A Lukashenko Regime.

Although Cichanouskaya says he sees “no obvious tendency” for Lukashenko’s security apparatus to be revalued, he says most of the dictator’s staff are simply afraid.

“We are receiving hundreds of messages from high-ranking people who want to retire. Only the system is designed for the government to take revenge and punish anyone who dares to withdraw. That is why most maintain their positions and remain silent,” he said the leader of the Belarusian opposition.

As Sviatlana Cichanouskaya wrote to the SNB on Tuesday, it started a joint register of crimes committed against protesters in Belarus and said it would seek international prosecution and sanctions against the perpetrators.

“I am initiating a unified crime log book created by the National Anti-Crisis Board and the team of former workers of the power structure, By_Pol,” Cichanouskaya said in a statement on Telegram on Tuesday.

Ms. Cichanouskaya noted that the launch of the online platform Common Criminal Record would record violations of the law “in as much detail as possible” and that attorneys would “verify the material collected and prepare [ją] criminal proceedings both internationally and in the courts of the new Belarus “.

“My team will recommend that the names of individuals against whom actual evidence has been collected be added to the sanctions lists. Last week, we presented the first criminal case in a court of international jurisdiction in Lithuania.” This is the case of Maxim Choroshin, who was tortured and had to leave Belarus, “he said.

Ms. Cichanouskaya also stressed that anyone involved in the illegal actions against the protesters “could confidentially write a sincere confession or testify about the crimes they saw.”

Proof that By_Pol has communications within the system is the group’s content posted on the YouTube platform, specifically leaked videos made with cameras connected to riot police bodies. The video is said to be from the last two Sundays when the protests were put down. The recordings have been viewed tens of thousands of times since last week, released by Radio Free Europe.

This footage is probably the best illustration of the riot control forces working on the streets of Minsk. In one clip, footage is taken of a militia van packed with shaking detained protesters sitting on the ground and transported to detention centers.

The following episode shows a group of armed anti-riot militia officers mounted in a minivan in protest.

When the door opens, shoot. “Prepare the grenades!” Exclaims one.

The second video was filmed on October 25, the day the riot police aggressively expelled the protesters gathered near the headquarters of the country’s Interior Ministry, apparently filmed by a person who had participated in the operation, announcing “Nastojaščeje vremia “on November 28.

Astapovic does not cite the sources of these videos, but says that hundreds of law enforcement officers are cooperating with him, who willingly share the content with him.

“It just came to our notice then. We started this movement and with its help we will overcome the regime by our own means,” says A. Astapovičius confidently.

He answered several questions in Nastojaščeje vremia:

– How did you manage to get such footage?

– I cannot answer you directly, but I will explain that the current government is already beginning to persecute the people who work within its system.

I have already commented to all those who have signed up for the candidates: how they begin to fire people, fire them, prepare countless certifications, shorten seniority, remove pensions, punish those who are against of the current government but still remain within the system.

As a result of the actions of the current government, the system itself begins to show signs of protest, people begin to try to defend themselves. It is a smart block that is now ready to fight the power lock by participating in what you see in those videos. Now that the civil war has started, let’s see who wins: the monkey with a stick or the intellect.

– Many people, seeing the brutal treatment of peaceful protesters on the streets of Minsk and other Belarusian cities, decide to leave their jobs in these institutions?

– I can’t name the exact number. This is very difficult to determine. Some turn to us, others simply put a statement on the table and leave their decision unannounced out of fear for their own safety and that of their loved ones.

If we talk about those who left for By_Pol, then the number is one thousand people. All I know is of those who ran there and actually left, maybe twice as much. More than they left and did not tell anyone.

– Or maybe you can change the mind of an individual security guard by talking to him? For example, maybe receiving a flower ring from a protester would make him relax? Or if something made you think of those mothers who suffer?

– Here’s a question for psychologists. In my opinion, for the workers of the power structures, especially ours, those flowers in the last place, this is not the most suitable solution. I am not saying that they need to be chased and beaten, but these tactics will certainly not be effective for those who are violent themselves and pour out such rage.

Unless there are real penalties and a natural fear of prosecution, and acknowledging anyone who has done so should remain anonymous. Then they will begin to understand, to realize that the mask will not save them.

Then you will start thinking about what to do if the ruling regime changes anyway. After all, Lukashenko is already old and not all-powerful, something is changing. And all that procedure will be carried out or an international investigation will begin, and there will be no escape from that Belarus.

And when the power changes, no one will forget what happened. There must be an understanding that you have been identified, you will have to be held accountable for your actions sooner or later. It really affects the perpetrators.
They will begin to be afraid and to think about their future. This can affect those who have done it but have not yet done so, those who have become witnesses.

So in order to defend themselves and show that it is not their job, they will start to testify against others, which is basically what is already happening: capture themselves, collect compromising material.